Although there are many gifts from the Great and Ancient King Bul-Kathos, the greatest of these is the secret of steel. Raw iron is hardened and made resilient, forged into weapons of honor and power. Most mortal swords are patterned after the blade first wielded by Bul-Kathos himself. Balancing offense with defense, it is the perfect weapon for the defense of Mount Arreat in the coming apocalypse. All Barbarian warriors learn the secrets of steel at an early age, yet few truly master the deadly elegance of the sword. Those few who do often disdain all other weapons.

Sword Mastery is the first of the Barbarian passive weapon mastery skills. It improves the Barbarian's fighting skills when wielding a sword (either one-handed or two-handed).

Since Barbarians can wield Two-Handed Swords with one hand when choosing to dual wield or pair with a shield, Sword Mastery is usually the Mastery of choice when deciding which to put points on, although the other Masteries are certainly useful in their own right.

Two-handed swords possess a decent attack range, rivaled only by Spears/Polearms, allowing the user to stray back further and still connect on hits. Even when wielded one-handed, two-handed swords have higher average damage output than most one handed weapons, rivaled only by the slower Hammers.